In recent years, input apparatuses having touch sensors such as touch panels, touch switches or the like are popularly used as input apparatuses such as operation units, switches and the like for receiving input operations by a user in mobile terminals such as mobile phones, information equipments such as calculator, ticket vending machines, home electric appliances such as microwaves, TV sets, lighting equipments, industrial equipments (FA equipments) and the like.
There are known a variety of types of those touch sensors, such as a resistive film type, a capacitive type, an optical type and the like. However, touch sensors of any of these types receive a touch input by a finger or a stylus pen and, unlike push-button switches, the touch sensors themselves are not physically displaced even when being touched.
Since the touch sensors themselves are not physically displaced when touched, an operator cannot obtain feedback to an input even though the touch input is received. As a result, the operator is likely to input erroneously by touching the same spot multiple times, which may be stressful for the operator.
As methods to prevent such erroneous inputs, there are known methods for visually or auditory confirming the input operations by, for example, generating sounds or by changing a display state, such as colors of input objects such as input buttons and the like graphically depicted in a display unit, according to a pushed area upon reception of the touch input.
However, such auditory feedback may be difficult to be confirmed in a noisy environment and is not applicable when the equipment being used is in a silent mode. Or, in using such visual feedback, if the input object displayed on the display unit is small, the operator may not be able to confirm the change in the display state, as a view of the input object is blocked by a finger, particularly when the operator is inputting by the finger.
There is also suggested a feedback method relying on neither the auditory- nor visual sensation but instead generating a tactile sensation at operator's fingertip by vibrating the touch sensor when the touch sensor receives an input (for example, see Patent Documents 1, 2).